By December, health authorities here are expected to launch the much-awaited 5-in-1 pentavalent vaccine through the Union Government-sponsored universal immunisation programme. In addition to Telangana, the vaccine will be rolled in 12 other States, an exercise many health care providers term a ‘historic milestone’ for the universal immunisation programme in India.
There is a general consensus among health care providers here that the vaccine, which was earlier scheduled for an October launch but was delayed by two months, will have a positive long-term impact in averting deaths due to Hib pneumonia, meningitis and hepatitis B.
On Friday, well-known Hyderabad drug firm Biological E Limited launched its pentavalent vaccine. A whopping 100 million doses of this vaccine have already been administered to children in Africa and other parts of the world. The company is collaborating with WHO, UNICEF, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to administer the vaccine.
“As part of the universal immunisation programme, the vaccine will be supplied through the Central Government to the States from December. At this moment, the ground work to implement the programme is under way,” said Biological E president (operations) Lakshminarayana Neti.
While senior doctors acknowledge that the pentavalent vaccine should have been introduced earlier, they have welcomed it.
“It’s better late than never and there should not be any misgivings about pentavalent vaccines. Thanks to such vaccines, parents need not make multiple visits, which will reduce the chance of default,” says head of paediatrics at Gandhi Hospital J. Venkateshwar Rao.
The single shot of pentavalent vaccine will provide protection to infants from five life-threatening ailments, including diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus (DPT), Hepatitis B and pneumonia due to Hib (Haemophilus influenza type b). Since 2011, the Centre had introduced pentavalent vaccine in a phased manner in Kerala, Karnataka, Pondicherry, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi.
Doctors say pneumonia caused by Hib contributes to two per cent of total mortality in children under five years, and also accounts for 40 per cent of meningitis and more than 20 per cent of cases of pneumonia among them. Annually, India has 3.12 lakh cases and a death toll of 72,000 in children under five years due to Hib.
M. Sai Gopal
